Building My Life

Chapter 9 Going to Downtown

Teodoro smiles when he sees Josias enchanted by a resident girl of Happiness Slum. “My boy, take it easy with that heart. Do I know her by any chance?”

“Her name is Melissa.” Josias responds as if he is singing, “And she lives further on.” Josias, however, shakes his head, “Well, what am I doing? Okay, the girl is beautiful and nice, and she was admiring my chest, even though I am not muscular; but, I need to find something. She must think I am a pervert for walking without a shirt.”

“There is nothing wrong with a man walking around without a shirt, especially in this heat.” Teodoro ponders, “But, as I warned you, better to start buying your things.”

Josias smiles as he remembers. “Her father is very strict; he doesn't want his dear daughter to marry a poor man. So I better get ahead.”

Josias starts walking out of the reception. Teodoro asks him, “Hey, where are you going?”

“Buy the towel,” Josias answers, without stopping or looking back.

Back on the main street, Josias realizes that a group of people is standing on the sidewalk as if they are waiting for the bus. Josias remembers that no buses are traveling in the locality and that it was a van that did the job. He approaches the group. “Excuse me; are you by chance waiting for the van?”

“Yes, and it is coming.” A lady in formal wear answers.

Josias looks back and decides to wait for the van. It stops. The guy in the passenger seat gets out and opens the rear door for the others to enter. He serves as the driver's assistant, collecting the ticket, cheaper than the conventional bus. There is still space and Josias enters, sitting in the middle of another teenager, probably going to some vocational course, and the lady who gave the information about the van. Inside, Michael Jackson's “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” is blaring on the radio. The guy next to Josias starts to move, he thinks he's dancing just like Michael.

The van reaches Downtown. Lagoon City is a medium-sized city with approximately 200,000 inhabitants, placed and build near the coast. The Downtown has numerous commercial and residential buildings, the tallest having an average of twenty floors. Traffic is busier, pedestrians need to cross the crosswalk and respect the traffic lights, and people crowd when walking on the sidewalk. Among so many people, Josias ends up calling the attention for being shirtless and in sweatpants. But, he is already getting used to it. Upon entering a Household linen shop, he is promptly attended to by a saleswoman who just needed to sell him a whole wardrobe, even Josias having repeatedly said that he just wanted to buy a bath towel.

When he left the store, relieved, Josias wondered if he was that cute, to get female attention. The fact is he was modest. And yes, he could have used the time to date the girls at school, but precisely because of the lack of financial support from his father, Josias spent his adolescence working in small services. Soon, he didn't have the head for picking up and dating like his other friends.

When walking through the downtown streets, Josias then remembers that right here he has already worked selling popsicles or delivering pamphlets. Any job that helped him buys jeans or new sneakers.

Josias stops walking when he is passing through the main square of the city, which is the ground zero of the municipality, having the slight impression of seeing Everaldo. A young man standing at the bus stop formally dressed like his friend from last night. Josias did not want to shout his name, as it could be another man. But, he tried to get closer. When he was almost close, a bus parked at the bus stop, and the boy, head down, promptly boarded the back door. If only he had his head up...

Josias regrets not having arrived on time. He wanted to meet with Everaldo again to say that everything was fine and that he was taking steps to build a better life. The religious boy's whereabouts became a mystery to Josias. Meanwhile, the same van pointed over the horizon, around the corner to the square. Josias signals to it. Immediately the other passengers look unfavorably at Josias, looking him up and down, thinking that the boy's little clothing and his dark skin indicate that he is a slum dweller.

Josias ignores the prejudiced glances and gets on the van, now with Captain and Tennille's “Do That to Me One More Time”, sounding on the radio and bothering others waiting for driving.